The Yugambeh Museum Youth Choir, established by Griffith Arts Research candidate Candace Kruger, has been named the winner of the Queensland Reconciliation Awards — Communities Division.
The Queensland Reconciliation Awards recognise the businesses, partnerships and community organisations fostering reconciliation across the state.
After a successful teaching career, Ms Kruger resigned from classroom music teaching to focus on the development of choral pieces for the Yugambeh Museum while undertaking a Master of Arts Research, In the Bora Ring: Yugambeh Language and Song Project.
Ms Kruger formed the choir on the Gold Coast in 2014 – the first youth Indigenous choir of it’s kind.
“The choir have performed at community and corporate events including Commonwealth Day 2016, the launch of National Reconciliation Week 2015 and the 2015 NRL Indigenous All Stars Match,” she said.
“I have witnessed choir participants discover extended family and how they fit within cultural family groups, understand and learn language through song and begin to connect to an identity that they hadn’t previously understood, particularly the youth who are in foster care.” Ms Kruger said.
A passionate musician and teacher, Ms Kruger’s community work is integrated in to her proposed research through Griffith’s School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, exploring how participation in a community choir supports the development of Aboriginal language skills and cultural identity in urban Aboriginal youth.
For more information about the choir or to book a performance at your next event, contact the Museum on 3807 6155 or email [email protected].
L-R: Curtis Pitt MP – Queensland Treasurer, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and Minister for Sport, Candace Kruger – Creative Consultant Yugambeh Museum/Choirmaster Yugambeh Museum Youth Choir, Christopher Levinge – Kombumerri Corporation for Culture President and Philip Noble – Chief Executive Queensland Treasury Corporation.
